Lalakhmet
General Information Lalakhmet (also known as Proto-Lalakhi) is an a priori, proto- lang. Proto-Lalakhi is an acient language spoken along the same period as Ancient Egyptian. (*) AV3, meaning animacy and verb third, is explained further under Syntax, but basically means that noun placement is always at the beginning of a sentence (preferrably OSV, which is used when noun of the same animacy appear) but will follow animacy rules (explained under Animacy in Nouns) with the verb always placed at the end of a clause. Phonology and Orthography Consonants There are 18 consonants all of which, barring approximants, can be geminate (written as a double letter, /mm/ > *''mm''). Though typically realized as unvoiced, plosives and affricates are realized as voiced in between vowels (except if geminate). Vowels There are 7 vowels which contrast frontness and hight (while roundness does not technically contrast, the rounded vowels in the chart are actual realizations). Long vowels are marked with a macron (ī ē ȫ ū ō ā). Note that there are no diphthongs, with each vowel, on its own, consisting of one half-mora, or full mora if it's a long vowel (see Phonotactics for more information), including the schwa sound /ə/. A word can have either a high pitch, marked with acute accent, or low pitch, marked with an grave accent. Typically longer words can have a second pitch (*ťápanatahāzḕk, the freshness of fresh fallen snow, have a low pitch in the last mora, ''-zḕk''). Words where a vowel goes across frontness changes pitch obligatorily and the pitch change goes in the opposite direction as the tone in the mora prior to the vowel in question. The first mora that has the different tone is realized as a "rising" (if low > high pitch) or "falling" (if high > low) pitch, however the remainder of the word keeps that high/low pitch. Functional words and cliques don't have any pitch. The accent marks are not necessarily always written down (such as the vowel markings in Arabic or Hebrew). Stress and Morae Lalakhmet is a mora-timed language with stress falling on the last syllable of a pure vowel (as in, stress cannot fall on /ə/, the schwa). A single mora is defined as: two, short-vowel, open syllables (*ťápanaə, snow, is split into two morae: ťápa-náə); a syllable with a long vowel (*ḵḕjḕ, a cook, is two morae: ḵḕ-jḕ); a short-vowel, open syllable and the start geminate consonant (*záttȫ̀, bone, is two morae: zát-tȫ̀); or a closed syllable, in which vowels are automatically elongated (*hā̀sníke, a weed, is two morae: hā̀s-níke). Phonotactics *A content word cannot have "radical morae" (or half-morae that don't have a pair). This is typically resolved with the addition of the ''-ə-'' adfix (which has no real meaning other than resolving the mora limitations). **this ''-ə-'' adfix can only be placed in open syllables but cannot interrupt a full-mora set. Therefore, it can be palced at the front of a word (like the word for Lalakhmet, *əlalāḵmēt), at the very end of a word (like word for snow, *ťapanaə), in between full morae ( ****FINISH *Approximants are limited to being between vowels or following consonants *Two consonants of the same place of articulation (except approximants) cannot juxtapose each other, except the cluster /tr/ *Closed syllables must have long vowels (except if they are formed by geminate consonants) *More than two long vowels can't be in adjacent morae Morphophonology Lalakhmet features consonant apophony which affects tense in verbs and case in nouns Grammar 'Verbs' Conjugation The ''-t-'' or ''-z-'' is the given consonant, but can be any. Grade 1 consonant apophony affects the immediate past, grade 2 for the preterite and imperfect, and grade 3 for the expectant and unknown future. 'Indicative' The regular conjugation of a verb in the indicative. 'Volative ' The volative means "want that" or "desire that" and used in cohortative phrases such as "if only _" or "may _". 'Potential' The potential (which also functions as a hypothetical mood) means "can", "able to", "possible to", or "could have _". 'Necessitative' The necessitative means "need" or "required" or "have to". 'Imperative' The imperative (which acts as a general hortative) means "let _", "may _", "do _", &c. 'Causative' The causative means "make _", "cause _", "originate _", &c. 'Nouns' 'Declension' The ''-t-'' or ''-z-'' is the given consonant, but can be any. Grade 1 consonant apophony affects the ergative, absolutive, and accusative, grade 2 for the dative and instrumental, and grade 3 for the stative and dynamic. "Collective" refers to the noun in general (referred in English as mass nouns) or an uncountable grouping of said noun (e.g., He ate rice - rice is an uncountable grouping of many grains of rice ; He saw a school of fish - in Lalakhmet, "fish" would be in the collective because a school of fish is an uncountable grouping ; Dogs like to play fetch - the word "dog" is referring is to that dogs in general tend to enjoy playing fetch). The "singulative" however refers to a single item, a small unit of said item, or when the noun's number is smaller than one (e.g., There was a grain of rice on the counter - a "grain of rice" is a single unit of rice ; There was not but a drop of water in the well - a "drop of water" is a small unit of water, as opposed to a glass of water, an ocean made of water, &c ; Yeah, I bought a dog - "a dog" is a singular dog, which could be qualified as well as "we could only afford one dog"). The stative and dynamic cases are used in postpositional phrases within which the dynamic case applies to postpositions indicating movement or change and stative for anything else. 'Stative' A stative noun is the pure lexical noun itself. : Augmentive An augmentive noun is a noun whose size is meaningfully increased or whose importance is amplified. : Diminutive A diminutive noun is a noun whose size is meaningfully diminished, whose importance is decreased. If the noun is a human or animal, it shows endearment for the noun by the speaker. 'Animacy' Lalakhmet uses an animacy system stolen from similar to Navajo's. It distinguishes this animacy hierarchy, from most to least animate: (God >>) Human > Animal >> Water/Air > Sun/Moon > Plants > Inanimate There are three groupings: divine (God), animate (human & animal), and inanimate (water/air, sun/moon, plants, & inanimate) Navajo, the higher a noun is on the animacy hierarchy, the closer it will be to the beginning of the sentence. Animacy is not marked. On animate nouns, humans and animals, a prefix can be placed to mark gender: əro-/əre-'', masculine human; ''əza-/əzö-'', feminine human; ''əko-/əke-'', animal; ''əpu-/əpi-'', general inanimate. The markings keep the same tone as the first syllable of their modifying noun does. 'Pronouns' 'Personal' The number system changes semantically among pronouns. The collective number here means a decently large group of people. This would be used when addressing an army, an assembly of people, a legislative body, &c. The singulative number is used when referring to a small group of people or a subgroup within a larger group, employed when addressing a classroom, a team, council or committee, or a group of friends. The difference however is productive and can be used rhetorically; as in, the head of state or king addressing the people using the singulative to show solidarity. Clusivity plays a small connotative role. Collectives are "detached inclusive" (meaning that, while including the audience and the speaker, it does not hold them as interacting, but that the audience is simply listening on, nearly third person): "we as a society should learn to _," "that's just what we employees do," "we are the United States army, and we will not be defeated." Singulatives show solidarity, friendship, and closeness among a small group (strangers or simple acquaintances would use first person collective with the diminuative suffix ''-īl): "our platoon will come out in victory!," "we don't want you sitting at our table anymore," "we're the best curling players in the world." That is to say, among new acquaintances or strangers, the collective is used in the augmentive. 1st, 2nd, and 5th Persons : Stative : Augmentive Otherwise known as the honorary, the augmentive in pronouns shows respect for the subject. Usually limited to the second person, the first person collective is the exception and is used regardless of the amount of people it is referring to. : Diminutive Among pronouns, the diminutive shows endearment. For this reason, it is almost strictly limited to the singulative. The exception is the second collective diminutive, which a person in authority or a comrade (esp. in the military) uses to signal endearment for a group of people. '3rd Person' The third person third person works as a personal pronoun and as a deictic pronoun (e.g., "he" would also mean "this/that"). These pronouns follow a hierarchy of salience from salient, obviative, supersalient, antisalient. The salient means the noun that is of importance or is at hand. Salient is insinuated to be proximal as well, but is not required to. Obviative means the noun is of less important or is in the background (read, not at the forefront of the situation; not at hand). This is insinuated as distal, but like salient, is not required to be. Supersalient is the noun of upmost importance or is the one of most crucial importance to the situation. Supersalience, from super-'' above + 'salient', is a sort of "superlative" of nouns. Antisalient, from ''anti-'' opposite + 'salient', is the noun of least importance or the one that is the most useless or unneeded to a situation. Like supersalience, it is the "negative superlative" of nouns. Diminutive and Augmentive forms work the same way as they do the first/second/fifth person pronouns, but only when they refer to a ''human or animal. When they refer to general inanimate, they function the same as general nouns do. That is to say, connotations like endearment and honorifics only apply to animate nouns (and only honorifics applies to divine nouns). : Stative :Augmentive The meaning of the augmentive subdeclension changes according to salience: salient is an honorific for family members older than the speaker or those of the same age but unfamiliar; supersalient is an honorific for people of very high social standing (e.g., king, sultan, priest, [used ironically for tax collectors). : Diminutive The meaning of the deminutive subdeclension changes according to salience: salient is an endearment marker for those in the family; obviate is a pejorative subdeclension for someone the speaker does not respect; supersalient is a strong endearment marker for fiancé(e)s and married couples; antisalient is a very pejorative subdeclension for someone the speaker desires to strongly belittle and challange. 'Adjectives' Examples: *Human: ḵezemīz, fatigued / tried / proven itself as a result of a test or trial / tired / exhausted The definition of an adjective, depending on the "degree" (how good/bad the speaker perceives the adjective), follows as neutral, good, glorious, bad, heinous. 'Neutral Declension' : Human ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Ideas: *Adjectives with degrees of connotativeness (heinous, bad, neutral, good, wonderful) and voice (positive/negative, active/passive) with comparativeness made with another specifically declining adjective *Roots be at the base with verbs, noun, and adjectives being formed therefrom *Strong emphasis on reflexive (esp. with antipassive) Words *ťàpān- : to snow *kḕj- : to cook *záttȫ : bone *ḵēzēm- : to be fatigued **ḵezemīz : fatigued, tired, exhausted * Category:Languages Category:A priori